"Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight With China" Topic

"Even after two frustrating decades of counterinsurgency campaigns, some American military thinkers want more of the same. Their argument typically goes something like this: high-intensity warfare with China or Russia is impossible because of the persistence of nuclear weapons.[1] Instead, our adversaries will employ proxy forces and insurgents to challenge us indirectly, in the gray zone.[2] Rather than ruthlessly prioritizing large-scale combat operations and de-prioritizing and running the risk of forgetting counterinsurgency, they urge us to remember how to eat soup with a knife and prepare for new types of small wars.[3] John Vrolyk riffed on these common refrains in War on the Rocks earlier this year, arguing that because future U.S. competition with China is "almost certainly going to consist of fighting proxy wars and insurgencies around the globe where American and Chinese interests clash."[4] Vrolyk makes many excellent points about the U.S. armed forces, but his confident prediction of China using proxy forces is highly unlikely. The simple fact is that China has not supported any foreign insurgencies since the 1980s, during a period when American, Russian, and Iranian use of proxy insurgents has been typical. Despite his immense global ambitions, Xi Jinping is not going to dust off Mao's On Guerilla Warfare anytime soon. To compete with China, the U.S. armed forces need a carefully balanced toolkit that includes both integrated campaigning below the threshold of armed conflict, and conventional overmatch, should war come.[5] Preparing for counterinsurgency campaigns against an adversary who is unlikely to back insurgents is not the right approach…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Good article,

Judging by how the Americans just gave the SC Sea to the Chinese and let them build fortified islands wherever they please, I suspect the Americans won't be bringing a knife to a gun fight, they'll be bringing a white flag.

Or, sub-launched cruise missiles, if things get hotter.

China isn't going to wage proxy wars like it did during the Mao Zedong years when its goal was fomenting Marxist revolutions to empower the proletariat, but a major conflict with the USA is even less likely. Why risk everything when it can take a page out of the American playbook and employ soft power to extend its global influence?

Why would China want a war with its biggest customer…?

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand